Spence

I agree 100% with the basic idea. This is why I don't understand making a decision (close the schools) followed by cutting the legs out of the decision (but send the kids back to school for meals) as making any sense. Beyond giving the appearance of doing something.

Hmm… OK, I’ll try to…. I’ll start with a tavern in a fantasy game. Most people I know will draw out a rough floorplan and note any NPC’s that may be there. We don’t see anyone stat’ing out the bar, the doors, the building beams and the tables. That is because the tavern is a location that the PC’s move around in, not an actual character. A horse or a wagon may be given limited stat’s such as a speed and maybe a hit/damage point total. But most will just improvise if it becomes necessary. I’ve played a lot of naval and space wargames where extensive details were needed in order to fight the ships. But an RPG is not a wargame, it is a Roleplaying game. A ship in an RPG game is not much different than a tavern, an Inn or a village, it is just a location for the PC’s to interact with. A few rudimentary stats may be needed so the GM can more easily arbitrate any action, but in the end not having even a basic map of the ship while having two pages of games stat’s detailing point costs of 10 different laser modes is ludicrous for a game that is supposed to be about individual people doing stuff. Players will be able to get far more actual use with a general map/deckplan than they will ever get from a wall of text with point costs most of which are generally useless for any RPG session. Knowing how many points life support costs does zip for playing out a hull breach scenario. I’d rather have a basic map so I can point out logical places for airtight hatches. A good deckplan adds to the adventure by giving the players something to plan around, much like the floorplan of the tavern enhances the bar fight. And I think I should clarify. I do not and never have liked deckplans that are large enough to actually place mini’s on it. IMO mini’s turn the game from a free flowing RPG into a tactical wargame exercise. Hopefully this unorganized babble explains what I am thinking…..

Oh, I am aware. The concept of containment is pretty much a non-starter at this point. I am just saying that closing the schools to minimize contact within the student body and then turn around and gather together that same student body doesn't really make sense. At least to me with my very limited first hand knowledge. As I understand it, and it should be strongly noted that I am definitely not any kind of expert and can only go by what I have read and the applicable bits of training I have had over the years. But as I understand it, while the virus is definitely dangerous and has caused deaths, the risk is heavily weighted to older ages and/or already having significant health issues. Most people I know who depend on school meals to aid providing their children meals are also the ones that work multiple jobs and lean heavily on their older family members to watch the kids while they are at work. So this is essentially gathering one of the least at risk groups together increasing their chances of being infected so they in turn can infect one of the highest risk groups. Perhaps instead of serving meals, they should issues MRE's once a week? I fully understand that a "lock-down" is not really feasible and I don;t think that it is the right answer anyway. But to be blunt, if you are going to open the school house everyday for meals, then just hold classes because the damage you were trying to prevent is being done anyway. This is just causing a lot of hoopla for no real return. Unless the whole point to just to appear to be doing something.

Good to hear. Mind you, I still think that everyone is going far overboard in their panic mode. But if you are going to do something such as quarantines and minimizing contact, then you should actually do it. Half measures are worse than no measures.

I watched season one when it came out and really enjoyed it. If I had realized the threat going in I would have skipped it because I have become really really really really jaded on that particular subject which I won't actually name in case there are people that want to watch it without knowing beforehand. I'll have to watch season two now that it is out.

Hard truths. Dispensing bag lunches/meals curbside would make more sense. Maybe more to distribute meal packs to take home, MRE's etc. But I don't know their logistical limitations right now.

Pretty much spot on. I favored Alien Wars over Terran Empire myself, but it suffers from basically the same issues. Leaving aside either setting having zero campaign/adventure support, they both suffer from the whole "Ships as Characters" mess that permeates not just Hero, but many RPG's. Ships in scifi are just like a Tavern or Inn in a fantasy game. They are a location for the PC's to move around in as they adventure. Just because the location also moves doesn't change that. But like I said that is not a unique issue to Hero. But what is a major issue that has been chewed over for years is the lack of actual adventure support, so I'll just agree and leave that too.

So they have closed all the schools in the state. Closing schools in an attempt to mitigate the spread of the virus, check. But then the local school district announced they will be serving free meals to students every weekday 10:30 am-12:30 pm. Kind of defeating the purpose I think

Thanks for the heads up. I have been resisting the whole concept of remote/online gaming for as long as it was even hinted at as an option. Heck I donlt even really like most video games. But I may just have to bow to necessity in the near future

I just cancelled visiting my Mom too, she is in her 80's and high on the risk table. Since flying there will put me into a pressurized metal tube breathing the same recycled air as the other 100-200+ passengers, I'd almost guarantee catching it. And being 56 myself, I'm not exactly as robust on recovering from illness anymore either. I'm the one that lives on the other side of the country, my sister and most of my family are there. Bummer though.

Looking back at the thread, I think it is more things that I strongly dislike rather than things that affect my immersion. I already mentioned the pathetic way ship's are usually handled in RPGs. Another item is exploding "races", where we have multiple races of elves, dwarves, etc. Humans are humans with cultural trappings. Elves should be the same. And the last for this post is zombies. I am sick of them and will simply walk away from a game when they appear. Zombies are even worse than the Vampire/Werewolf craze of the 80/90's.

OK, I stand corrected. I was running a lot of store games for a while and too many of the current crop seem to think that way.

We may be using the phrase "out in left field" in different contexts. I'm meaning a player agrees to a campaign with the PCs being the force of good but then arrives with a murderhobo assassin that drinks blood. Making a silly super in a superhero game is flavor and concept. A GM can work with that. But if the campaign was a gritty investigative crime game, then a toon PC would be out of the scope.

Yes and no. If the PC is within the ballpark the absolutely. If the PC is completely out in left field, no. These days I am adamantly opposed to the concept the GM/DM is mandated to accept anything and somehow make it work. The player is equally responsible to make an effort for their character to fit the game. Now, I am not saying either of you are doing anything wrong. I just object to the blithely accepted idea that players have carte blanche and the GMs just need to suck it up that seems to have overrun the hobby. I think I've found my trigger

Today the rarest and most mysterious creature in gamedom is the active GM/DM. That is ACTIVELY running. (If you have run games in the past you are not a GM, you are a former GM.) Of that tiny population the least seen species is the virtually extinct "world builder" and the equally endangered "home brew" GM. Every gamer I talk to in the flesh claims to be one and yet EVERY SINGLE ONE spends what little game time they have running pre-built material or hastily tweaked pre-built material. Or rather every single one with one exception. I do know one very accomplished GM that runs original adventures. But they will not touch Hero as it simply takes too much time to use. With my FLGS closing recently, I suddenly no longer have any gaming commitments so I have dusted off my historical miniatures and found my paint brushes. But I have also been able to find more time to tinker with RPG adventure concepts. Not playing at a FLGS, I am also not limiting myself to RPGs currently in distribution. I may actually have enough time to get some 5th Edition rolling.

Looks like it. IAW the John Hopkins dashboard Italy has the second highest count in the world. Italy Confirmed: 9,172 Deaths: 463 Recovered: 724 Active: 7,985 But they are beginning to see recoveries which is a good thing.

@Ptolus So I am following this one and haven't decided on which selection. From the tidbits I have seen, the city layout is very close to one I need for one of my own ideas. A good map is worth it's weight in gold. I should clarify, a good usable map. Hudson City is a fantastic city setting that also has a usable map so I have used it in almost all of my games that are set in the industrial age. for me any game that has a investigative element really needs a good map with a minimum of names streets. I can flesh out and place buildings, but streets need to be named so they can be identified on the fly. Vibora Bay is almost good. The book is well done but the map is not a city map. It is a snapshot taken from Pluto. Ptolus has been around for a while and has evolved. From what I can tell it will have an actual usable map.

Completely wrong. Roleplaying is a cooperative venture where players and the GM work together to build a story. If a person agrees to a story and builds a character for that story and then deliberately deviates and performs actions designed to undermine the game. They are not roleplaying. They are little s*its screwing with people. They are not honest. Liar comes to mind. In roleplaying you agree take on a role within a story. If you do not intend to actually play the role, then don't lie about it. Either work with the rest of the group and design a more appropriate character or elect to skip that game. You can call anything roleplaying if you want. But I can't defend by calling dirtbags that deliberately destroy games for fun roleplayers. I understand the current fad where any a$$hatery is "cool" and "rad" because players are the all. But they aren't. Players are expected to play within the bounds of the game like anyone else. A garbage player is just like a garbage GM. They soon find themselves alone without a game. We wouldn't do well in the same games I expect. I have walked out of games as a player and as a GM because of these kinds of nonRoleplayers, and I expect it will happen again. Sorry for what became a rant, but I have really gotten fed up with the "players can do anything and everyone just needs to suck it up" mentality that has infected gaming like a virus. If you want to play a backstabbing thief, then make one and find a game that needs a backstabbing thief. But if no such game is available don't smile, make a different PC with the intention to lie to everyone and play your new PC as that backstabbing thief. If you can't find one, then try being a GM. Deliberately misleading the table so they can get their jollies is not roleplaying.

I love seafaring and ships, but most of the ones in Fantasy RPG's are abysmal and written by people with 0 understanding. Most of the Fantasy RPG's are throwing out ships and ship tech that is actually closer to that aircraft carrier than what they would have at the comparable setting. God save me from another 18th century tall ship in a 700AD setting, or even worse a 1200BC setting. Yes, magic adds its elements, but for any small bit of sanity, just f'ing google the names of ship types that may possibly have existed within 500 years of each other. It isn't hard. Arrghhhhh,.... sometimes my eyes just want to bleed.

Seafaring/Ships. Please if you cannot even be bothered to google the level of information a random 5 year old may know, then just don't.

It didn't.... More post superhero comic stuff from the years after comics ended.

And a well designed system could allow the players and GM to add dramatic outcomes that would have been a writers domain if it were a book. I am reading this to mean that by following the setting conventions you believe that players are sacrificing their agency. I don't comprehend this. Following a settings conventions is the heart of role playing and has nothing to do with sacrificing a players agency, rather a player that agrees to play in a RPG setting has already agreed to follow the conventions of the setting. A player that makes a Lawful Good Holy Paladin of the Ultimate Good God is not surrendering their agency because they re required to stop another PC from murdering a merchant just so they can loot the wagon. By making a Dudley DoRight character for the setting that player has agreed to play that character. Just like the murder-hobo can't really complain when the Dudley DoRight Paladin slaps them down. If you don't like the setting and that settings conventions, then pass on the game.

Batwoman? Pfft. I'm looking for "They Arrow". It sounds like a spinoff.....

I haven't put in my two cents because I don't have a working solution. I have used various Hero/Action Point systems across multiple games and have had a lot of fun both as GM and Player. They all have their pluses and minuses. I totally agree with you that Champs/Hero, being the detailed game it is, misses on some of the very things that make superheroics heroic. This has really been a major issue for me over the years because no other game comes close in doing a superbattle. Take Knockback, no other game really allows you the not only do knockback distance that is directly proportionate to the hit as well reducing that distance as you bang through obstacles. I can remember many times where a hero being knocked back through a building became almost an event all it's own with players laughing and groaning as the Brick becomes a human pinata. Good times. Back to Points. Heroes HAP's and other types of points just don't work for me. There is always something missing. Modiphius' game uses Fortune/Momentum/Doom (Conan) or Determination/Momentum/Threat (STA) which is a really great mechanism to drive both the action and roleplaying for the players. I have been messing around with them to see if something similar might work. If Pushing wasn't so meh, I might not be looking. But the current Pushing rules are anti-heroic in any setting except a real world setting. A ten point increase is impressive to a normal, but a whimpering meh for pretty much anything else. But I am beginning to ramble. Thank you for starting the topic, it has been an interesting read

So, they are going to make the worst possible movie they can. Then after waiting ten or so years they can start over. Anything they make then will seem to be fantastic compared the the last one.